A former correctional lieutenant at Salinas Valley State Prison pleaded guilty this week to accepting more than $95,000 in cash and wire transfers to help smuggle cellphones and tobacco to inmates at the Soledad facility. Matthew L. Madsen, 40, of Greenfield, admitted working with an inmate and others over roughly two years to move contraband past prison security, a scheme that unraveled into a federal honest-services-fraud conspiracy charge.
According to the San Francisco Chronicle, Madsen worked with others, including at least one inmate and someone outside the prison, to bring contraband into the Soledad facility from January 2023 through February 2025. He pleaded guilty Tuesday to one count of honest services fraud conspiracy, a charge that carries a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison and a $250,000 fine. His sentencing is scheduled for Feb. 9 before U.S. District Judge Noël Wise.
Madsen worked for the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation from 2017 to 2025, according to the Chronicle's reporting, eventually rising to the rank of correctional lieutenant. As a lieutenant, he sometimes supervised an entire prison yard that could include about 1,000 inmates and 200 staff members, prosecutors said. CDCR employees are barred from bringing wireless communication devices and tobacco products into prisons, restrictions that exist in part because such devices can be used by inmates to coordinate violent attacks and the trafficking of other contraband, according to a media release from the U.S. Attorney’s Office.
Conflicting Figures on Age and Payments
Reports on the case differ slightly on two details. The Chronicle's account of Tuesday's guilty plea describes Madsen as 40 years old, while KSBW reported him as 39 at his first court appearance in February. The payment total also varies between sources: the Chronicle's report on the guilty plea cites more than $95,000, while the original criminal complaint described by KSBW alleged that Madsen smuggled items — including cellphones and tobacco — into the prison for inmates in exchange for about $100,000.
KSBW's earlier reporting also noted that Madsen was employed by CDCR from 2017 to 2025 and primarily worked at Salinas Valley State Prison. The FBI and the state corrections department investigated the case, according to the Chronicle.
Part of a Broader Pattern Inside California Prisons
Madsen's case is not an isolated one in California's correctional system. Earlier this year, CDCR reported that K-9 searches conducted Jan. 26-27 at Gabilan Conservation Camp and Wasco State Prison-Reception Center turned up cell phones, tobacco, methamphetamine and other items, underscoring how persistent contraband trafficking remains across state facilities, according to the agency's own account.
Other recent federal cases echo the Madsen allegations. A former K-9 sergeant at California state correctional facilities, Avelino Ramirez, pleaded guilty to wire fraud in a scheme in which he planted contraband that he would then pretend to discover, according to the Department of Justice. And at San Quentin, Keith Reindeer Randle, a former prison employee, pleaded guilty to possessing more than 300 grams of methamphetamine with intent to distribute inside the facility; prosecutors said Randle used his position to move methamphetamine, marijuana and tobacco to inmates from at least January 2019 through August 2024, charging roughly $1,000 for each item he smuggled in, as reported by Patch.
Madsen's sentencing before Judge Wise next year will determine how severely the court weighs his occasional supervision of an entire prison yard against the scope of the smuggling operation he admitted to running from inside the institution he was sworn to secure.
